BOULDER >> From culture wars to actual wars in Ukraine and Gaza, inflation to tariffs, artificial intelligence in our software to artificial ingredients in our food, the world around us often feels like a messy place. For the advertising, marketing and public-relations professionals tasked with crafting messaging to meet the challenges of this moment, it’s just another day at the office.

“It’s all uncertain,” People Productions CEO Don Poe, speaking Tuesday at BizWest’s CEO Roundtable on Advertising, Marketing and PR in Boulder, said of the industry’s current state of affairs and the broader macroeconomic and geopolitical environment. “It’s like being on a waterbed.”

Societal uncertainty and stress, however, can be a boon for the PR folks who get paid to help businesses and organizations maneuver through choppy waters, said Common Catalyst LLC CEO Mark Eckhardt, whose company, since the COVID-19 era and the concurrent rise of protest movements, has increasingly been hired to assist clients with conflict management and strategies for “how to navigate polarization and divide.”

The pandemic, as with many industries, served as an inflection point for marketers, particularly those who work with clients in sectors such as food and beverage, Root Marketing & PR owner and founder Kuvy Ax said.

During the pandemic, restaurants struggled due to shutdowns, and when the world reopened, inflation began crushing consumer-packaged goods manufacturers. “It can feel like we can’t win,” Ax said.

While the COVID-19 era may have seen remote workers spread across the globe regardless of where their companies were headquartered, clients are increasingly seeking out the “warm and cuddly feeling of having someone local” handling their marketing, Special Sauce founder Andrew Holliday said. “… Post-pandemic, I’ve seen a gravitation shift back toward” companies in the Boulder area hiring local PR and advertising firms.

As interest rates rise and fears of economic contraction grow more acute, companies often react by tightening their grips on marketing purse strings, Grounds for Promotion founder and general manager Jonathan Sackheim said. This strategy, however, often serves to “cut off your nose to spite your face” because firms need marketing and advertising to drive sales, especially when the economy is less robust.

The decades-long trend of media consolidation has widespread impacts for marketers, both in terms of where advertising is placed and how well informed consumers are, Greenlight Strategy principal Bill Rigler said. “The collapse of local journalism … is going to have real long-term consequences for our clients,” who are often real estate developers engaged in potentially controversial projects.

Nearly all of the CEO Roundtable participants said they use AI to serve their clients, often using the technology to reduce time spent on busy work and, in the parlance of football, to move the ball from mid-field to five-yard line, where human touch then punches it into the endzone.

Additionally, “I view us as consultants” to help clients understand how to integrate AI into their own business processes, Poe said.

Still, there is skepticism from some sectors, particularly from “crunchy” industries such as natural and organic products, Kuvy said, whose leaders often have environmental and moral concerns about artificial intelligence.

This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2025 BizWest Media LLC.